So I did a search and saw there was a brief discussion on this back in 2007.

I have a dilemma as to which on these two units I should add to my gear.

I can get the Monster HTS 5100 Signature Series for $300 and the Panamax M5400-PM for $360.

Price aside, does anyone have insight into which unit is better for overall filtering and line protection.

I see in this section you guys would probably go with something better but if you have opinions or experience with these products please chime in.

Thank you!

Monster products = overpriced crap

Monster advertising = fraudulent claims and/or deceitful misrepresentation

Monster products = overpriced crap

Monster advertising = fraudulent claims and/or deceitful misrepresentation

Now that we've had the Monster hater take on things, the Monster Power products are actually quite good.

It's sort of your call as to whether the Monster or Panamax products suits your purposes better and/or is priced better.

Both will do surge suppression/protection and do reasonable quality filtering.

Now that we've had the Monster hater take on things, the Monster Power products are actually quite good.


And now that we've had the Monster fanboy take on things, back to reality.....

And this is not what I wanted back and forth.

Anyone with informed opinions or experience with both models?

Yes, neither unit has significant surge protection devices or power conditioning equipment to make a difference to your system. Do a search on various power conditioning threads here, and you'll find some suggestions on what to buy to get protection to happen right at your breaker panel.

The small amount of parts in the box are more or less already duplicated within your stereo equipment, and both brands do cater to your fear factor in order to sell stuff that you don't really need.

You also need to figure out why you want a power conditioner in your system. If you have brownouts or power sags, you'd need significantly larger and more expensive units to cure that. If you have frequent lightning strikes in the area, a brute force crowbar style unit at the breaker panel will do more good than the Monster or Panamax units.

if you have line issues (and that is a MASSIVE IF) then there are many better steps to take.

if you have been sucked in as to how bad your power is by either of their marketing materiels... then please understand that the term power conditioner is a meaningless term.

If you need a voltage regulator... ok
If you need a surge supressor... ok
If you need a UPS... ok

in all of those categories there are many better. IF you need anything at all.

And now that we've had the Monster fanboy take on things, back to reality.....

Ah, I'm a fanboy because I don't consider their products garbage.

That makes sense…

So I did a search and saw there was a brief discussion on this back in 2007.

I have a dilemma as to which on these two units I should add to my gear.

I can get the Monster HTS 5100 Signature Series for $300 and the Panamax M5400-PM for $360.

Price aside, does anyone have insight into which unit is better for overall filtering and line protection.

I see in this section you guys would probably go with something better but if you have opinions or experience with these products please chime in.

Thank you!

Don't have any experience with Panamax so i can't comment on their stuff. However i do own a Monster HTUPS 2700 which i've had for almost a year now and pretty satisfied with it. It weighs somewhat on the heavy side which is ok because it's probably the transformers and regulators that's in there.

The nice thing i like about it is the stabilizes the electricity. So any spikes, noise or fluctuations it keeps it in check and you can hear the clicking inside the unit which tells me it's doing it's job. Not really sure about HTS 5100 so no comment on that either. Another great feature on the HTUPS 2700 is that there's a backup battery. So if the electricity goes out and you have that unit hooked up to a DVR it'll keep on recording for a few minutes or so.

Hope that helps.

Okay, how about I throw Furman into the mix. Now also considering either the Elite 15PFi or the 20PFi.

Any thoughts?

I haven't owned a Panamax but I have owned several Monster HTS-5000 and one did in fact stop a power problem from killing a component. My old house had some jacked up ground differentials that killed items before when put on multiple circuits. The power filter saved me once but smelled like smoke afterwards. I have also had several Adcom power filters and Equitech balanced power filters.

That said, I wouldn't buy another Monster unit. While I don't agree with their company's ethics, the real reason is I think that balanced power is really the way to go for power filtering and as for surge protection, you can do that at the breaker panel most cost effectively.

http://cdn1.libsyn.com/gearcast/SurgeX__GearCast_145.mp3?nvb=20091015033353&nva=20091016034353&t=02a5f8b9a19540bc67bd8


http://www.fullcompass.com/brand/SGX/Power-Conditioners-Distributors-Rackmount-Free-Standing.html

I don't work for fullcompass, but that podcast better have you thinking away from mov based surge protectors aka Monster, Panamax, low end Furman's (low end furmans as in $100 ones). But the higher end furmans $230 or so and up have similar surge protection as the surgeX products. I bet it is a toss up on which has the better filtering.